Monday, January 26, 2009

A Legacy Charting success

I posted on Friday about Legacy Charts with Picture Backgrounds. I lamented the fact that I could put only four generations, with name, birth, marriage and death date/locations) on a single page chart. I had hoped to be able to do a five generation chart on a single page.

Geoff kindly commented that I could create a multi-page chart, save it as a .jpg file and print it on a single page using my printer program. Yep, that works! Great!! I created a chart with five generations on four pages full-scale, then saved it as a .jpg file (1.59 mb), and printed it out. The resulting chart looks like this:


That's pretty much what I wanted in the beginning. On an 8.5 x 11 page, suitable for framing, the names, dates and places are almost readable - they are there if people really care. I do, but many won't.

One of the options in Legacy Charting is to order a full scale chart. The chart above (24 inches by 24 inches) on bond paper would cost $4.00 each, on Professional paper, $14; on Photo Glossy paper $28, and on Matte Canvas $50. All prices are plus shipping. It appears that when the size goes to 24 x 24, the background photo is distorted a bit. Some work on the original photograph to make a square image would return it to the correct proportions. I believe that the charts are created and shipped by Janet Hovorka's Generation Maps company.

My next project is to add thumbnail pictures of most of the people on the chart and see if I can get them added onto this chart. Or at least on a four generation chart. I haven't created the head shots yet from my photo collection - something else on my endless (it seems) to-do list.

I haven't given up on my goal to make a 10 generation chart - I'm just not ready to do that yet!

5 comments:

Cindy said...

Great info Randy thanks! And Thanks to Geoff for giving the tip!

Andrea Christman said...

Thanks for this post! I am a Legacy user and this is helpful. I know what you mean about creating the headshots....does the things to do list ever end???

Janet Hovorka said...

Yep. We print them for Legacy. So you can be sure they will be printed right :-). Let us know when you are ready--or if you need a design that Legacy doesn't do.

Janet Hovorka said...

Or let us know if you just don't want to take the time to fool with it :-)

Eileen said...

I am impressed with what Legacy Charting can do. I do not use Legacy but I was interested in what you were doing with your chart so I tried to do the same in my software. I hadn't tried this before so I was pleasently surprised that I could add my own background, add thumbnails, do 5 generations on one page, show BMD, and select box shape and colors. I use FTM 2009.